Amharic Holy Bible (Ethiopian) 2.0

This Amharic Bible serves as a thoughtfully developed resource for those seeking to engage with the word of God across various contexts. Noteworthy features include a user-friendly interface, sophisticated search functionality, bookmarking, highlighting options, and seamless navigation throughout its contents.

Historically, Christianity became the state religion of Ethiopia in the 4th century, and translations of the Bible into Ge'ez began around that time. However, significant translations into Amharic have only emerged in the past two centuries.

A pivotal moment occurred in 1962 when a new Amharic translation derived from Ge'ez was published under the auspices of Emperor Haile Selassie I. The preface, dated "1955" (E.C.) and indicating the 31st year of his reign (AD 1962), notes that this translation was undertaken by a Bible Committee convened between AD 1947 and 1952. The goal was to provide a revised version from the original Hebrew and Greek texts, addressing the previous translation's limitations. This edition included the 66 protocanonical books recognized by both Protestant and Catholic Christian traditions, while the five deuterocanonical texts were published separately. These deuterocanonical books include 1 Enoch (Henok), Jubilees (Ge'ez: Mets'hafe Kufale), and I, II, and III Meqabyan, which differ significantly from the Maccabees found in other Biblical traditions.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Bible, encompassing a total of 81 books—including deuterocanonicals—was published in 1986. This version made minor adjustments to the 1962 Amharic text of the New Testament; however, the Old Testament and deuterocanonical texts remained unchanged from earlier publications under Haile Selassie I.

Key benefits of this application include:

• Functionality without an internet connection (offline use);
• Search capabilities;
• Adjustable font sizes;
• The ability to create an unlimited number of tabs for specific verses or books;
• Options to copy or share verses;
• Scrolling enabled through volume buttons.

The development team is committed to enhancing the application's functionality over time.

In terms of navigation: each menu item corresponds to a specific book, with individual pages representing chapters within those texts. Users can directly input chapter numbers rather than scrolling through each chapter manually, facilitating a more efficient search for particular passages.